This invention relates to an improved multi-station insertion machine and to a method of operating the same.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,325,455 and 3,260,516 relate to multi-station inserters which are presently produced and marketed by the assignee of the present application and well-known in the market as the Phillipsburg inserters. In the insertion machines of these patents a master control document is withdrawn from a master control document station and moved onto an inserter track which has a suitable conveyor means for moving the master control document past a plurality of insertion stations. As the master control document is thusly moved, additional documents from the insertion stations are stacked with the master control document. The master control document and its insertions are then inserted into a mailing envelope by well-known means.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,260,517 is particularly directed to an improvement of U.S. Pat. No. 2,325,455 and related to a device for deriving signals from particular master control documents and using those signals to control the subsequent selective insertion of documents from only selected insertion stations.
Once the control document and its insertions have been inserted into the mailing envelope, a determination must be made regarding the amount of postage to be applied to the envelope. However, insertion machines of the type described above are utilized in many environments in which it is difficult to make an accurate determination of the correct postage for each envelope.
As an example of this difficulty, in the banking industry envelopes are mailed monthly to customers and include such enclosures as a statement of account, informational enclosures, and cancelled checks. With respect to informational enclosures, banks may send certain general interest enclosures to all customers while also enclosing one or more of many special interest enclosures to select or targeted customers in accordance with the bank's estimation of the pertinence of the enclosure relative to each customer. Therefore, the weight of the envelopes mailed by the bank can vary considerably from customer to customer depending on, for example, the number of cancelled checks, the length (and hence weight) of each cancelled check, and the number of items such as informational enclosures which are inserted in a customer's envelope.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,728 to Eugene Sather et al., commonly assigned herewith, provides a method and apparatus for removing overweight envelopes from an inserter track prior to passage to a postage meter. In setting up the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,728, an initial determination is made regarding the expected average weight of an envelope containing a statement sheet and the maximum possible weight of the maximum number of informational inserts to be included therein. Next, based upon the initial determination, a second determination is made of the number of checks required to increase the overall weight of a given envelope and contents to an amount in excess of the postage for which the meter is set. This number of checks is entered into an overweight selector which is operative to produce a signal representative of a number of checks in excess of which would require additional postage.
In accordance with the basic teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,728, some current inserter machines have two in-line postage meters--a first postage meter for applying postage to envelopes having a weight within a first range (0.00 ounces to 1.00 ounces, for example) and a second postage meter for applying postage to envelopes having a weight within a second range (1.00 ounces to 2.00 ounces). In the manner of U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,728, the user determines a first preset count indicative of the number of checks which would make the envelope too heavy and hence not eligible for the first range, as well as a second preset count indicative of the number of checks which would make the envelope too heavy and hence not eligible for the second range. Such inserter machines read a binary code indicative of the number of cancelled checks that are to be inserted into the envelope and, based on a comparision of the read value to the first and second preset counts, diverts the envelope either toward the first postage meter, the second postage meter, or to a location for special handling.
As mentioned above, the preset counts indicative of the number of cancelled checks to be inserted into an envelope must take into consideration the maximum possible weight of the maximum possible number of non-check items which are also inserted into the envelope. When the actual weight of the non-checks items in a given envelope is less than this maximum, envelopes can be assigned an unnecessarily high weight category.
Moreover, in the industry it is common to have commercial checks of relatively long length (and hence greater weight) and checks of shorter length (and hence lesser weight), such as personal checks. If it is improperly assumed that all the checks are either long length checks or short length checks, the envelopes can be assigned to an incorrect weight category.
Hence, an object of the present invention is the provision of an inserter machine which accurately determines the weight of an envelope and its associated inserts.
An advantage of the present invention is the provision of an inserter machine which, by accurate determination of the weight of an envelope and its associated inserts, results in a substantial financial savings.
A further advantage of the present invention is the provision of an inserter machine which is easily operated for determining the accurate weight of an envelope and its associated contents.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is the provision of an inserter machine which discriminates between long length inserts and short length inserts in determining the accurate weight of an envelope and its associated contents.